The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-07-29

literature as poets and writers of fiction
only, not as historians, but Geibel as we'll
as Frelhgrath was a student OF history, and
| so eminently well informed about ali mat
tiers relating to the early history of their
people-the former being a professor of
German history at the Munich University
that their statements must be treated with
consideration.
The testimony of contemporary his
torians, however, carries greater weight,
and | found such in the often quoted Taci-
tus. We learn from his first and second
books about the Germans:
l. That Drusus and Gernanicus had their
stronghold on the left bank of the Rhine
2. That these Generals first succeeded in
| conquering the tribe of Galatians after the
ChattianS had quarreled among themselves,
and the Batavi, sister tribe, had gone over
to the enemy"
3. That ito preserve the peace of the
provinces they took the best warriors from
there to distant provinces
4, That 1.-THE Galatians were a very rest
less tribe, and that Germanicus was in the
habit of ordering his legion commander,
SllluS, to the lower Rhine to keep the Chat
tians from breaking the peace as often as he
himself Went on military expedition"
The question now arises, to what distant
provinces" were the "Chattians" sentl Taci-
tus is silent on this point II is, however,
learned from other contemporary writers
that they were taken to Rome, and, after
some years of drilling in the Roman mode
of warfare, sent to Asia Minor to fight the
| barbarans
There, one of them-a centurion of noble
birth-roSe into notice as strategist, was
| promoted to the rank of commander of the
! German legion, succeeded i'll subduing the
barbarian tribes, and received in conse-
| quence the title of Pontius and was finally
sent to Palestine as military governor or
''procurator" of Judea.
This successful German was Plate, known
| in history as Pontius Plate, the ruler under
whom Christ suffered.
Plate was the son of German king of
Mayenze (Mainz). Tyrus by name, and his
mistress the daughter of miller Shortly
before the time when Drusus captured
Mayenze, in the year ID B. c., young PLATE
killed his brother, the heir to the throne.
He was to be executed for this crime, but,
luckily for him, Drusus then appeared be-
fore the walls of Mainz, and, having cap
| tured the city, demanded son of the king
rs hostage of good faith.
King Tyrus delivered Plate to the Romans
He was taken to Rome with other Germans
and educated for the army. (See John Nc
Clintocka "Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theolog-
| ical and Ecclesiastical Literature "
From the fact of Pilates promotion to the
high office of Military Governor of Judea
it may be assumed that he was left in COM
mand of the German (Chattiam legion
which fought so CALAMITY under him in Asia
| Minor. And as the Romans had no special
eXecutioners, the execution of criminals
| being intrusted to the body guard of the
| ''procuratorn or Military Governor, who
was also the highest judicial authority, it
must be concluded that soldiers of his, the
| Chatham German legion, executed Christ.
Anent the fact that PLATE was German
good many old legends are current among
the German people One of them says that
| PLATE tried to drown himself in tho river
| Tiber, but that the waters refused to accept
the disgraced foreigner, and that God then
babe him seek his native country and try to
reform his people.
Pilate-sO the story goeS-was willing to
follow this command, but when he reached
| Switzerland remorse overlook him. and he
| drowned himself in little lake, which up to
this date bears the name of Plate Lake
| (''Pilatus See.'0 The people living in the
| neighborhoOd of this lake believe that Plate
is still at the bottom of the lake, and that
he rises to the surface on stormy nights,
| looking over the waters, wringing his hands
| and crying aloud.
Prinz Eugene, called "the noble knight, -
one of the heroes of the thirty years war,
declares that he fears to 90 to that region of
Germany, where the Chattians-the execu-
tionerS of Christ-fOrmerly resided.